


One More!!

by Tyranno



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Gen, Highschool AU, Slight--Shimizu Kiyoko/Yachi Hitoka, Temporary Character Death, Well - Freeform, again!! au, no volleball au, not much tho sorry, not too gory hopefully haha, sort of, yachi is adorable and is aparently the mc in this one haha
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-18
Updated: 2015-06-03
Packaged: 2018-03-02 02:38:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2796596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tyranno/pseuds/Tyranno
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shōyō Hinata is finishing high-school at 17... without the volleyball club. Apparently, they were disbanded just before he joined, and he wasn't able to track them down again. Disaster strikes, and suddenly he is 15 again with all his memories... There's at least one thing he wants to change, right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. School daze!!

Shōyō Hinata squints as the sun is blocked out by a very distinct figure. 

Yachi Hitoka is very hard to miss; especially today. Today she’s wrapped in a puffy neon-yellow parka and a pair of unstylish large black sunglasses that slip down her nose; she has to push them up with the back of her arm because her hands are full with... plastic bags? She looks like a bee. 

Hinata sit up, rubbing his eyes. 

“Hinata, you would’ve slept right through to the start of the graduation ceremony if I hadn’t woken you up,” Yachi said, sounding worried, although her big grin hasn’t faded in the least. 

The stretch of nearly weed-less common outside is slippery with more than just dew, and Hinata’s scrambles upwards are more awkward than usual. 

Hinata grins too. “Oh yeah! Well, that’s why I have you, Yachi-san!” 

Yachi nods enthusiastically. “C’mon.” She says, striding ahead. 

Hinata jogs to keep up, huffing. 

Him and Yachi live quite far from school, but the hill-come-mountain is steep and angled so he can see it immediately as they turn a corner. 

It looks to all the world—or at least, all of Miyagi—like an ordinary prefectural high-school. It was. It had been many years since it had been anything else. The volleyball team had disbanded because it only had two members the year before he’d started, and the rest of the sports clubs and intellectuals were all average. It was an old wound, but Hinata almost felt like something wasn’t right. Like he was missing out. 

“Your bike?” Yachi asked, holding it up with surprising ease and steadiness. He guessed all those years at Tennis Club paid off after all. 

“Thanks.” He set off with ease, feeling the road roll smoothly under him. It wasn’t the adrenaline rush of all those hours he’d spent at Track, but it was a nice change. 

Yachi sighed, leaning into a corner. “I can’t believe we’re finally graduating. It’s been three years. Do you remember that time we tried to join the drama club? I can’t believe how much they booed! Though that reviewer said we were the worst performance he’d ever heard. You were right, he was probably jealous.” She clapped her hand to her mouth, “Do you remember that time you lost a bet and had to buy the entire class meat buns from the corner shop! Ah, you might even still owe me for that! Ah and do you remember...” 

Hinata almost didn’t hear her; he was trying to peer into the bursting plastic bags sitting in her basket. 

“Are those... sweets?” Hinata asked. The bright packaging was hard to read when half his mind was focussed on staying upright and not veering off into a tree. 

Yachi flushed, and her bike wobbled underneath her. “Oh—eh, I heard K-Kiyoko was, eh, coming back and... I know sh-she... likes sweet things...” 

Hinata threw his head back and laughed loudly. “You’re going to give her diabetes!!” 

“Y—y-you don’t have to say it like that!!” Yachi cried, face burning brilliant ruby. 

Hinata laughed uproariously, speeding up. “Race you!!” 

The trees sped past, and the road dipped downwards. 

Their bike lights shone back at them from the slick of yesterday’s rain. 

The trees began to whip past now, and Hinata skidded dramatically when he turned a corner, bike tilting close to the rough concrete. 

“Hey, Hinata!! I think we should—” Yachi shouted, her breath catching cold in her throat. 

The world froze. 

Ahead of them loomed a dark truck, a wall of shinning metal and glass, huge bulk covering the whole road. Yachi stared long at it, eyes wide and disbelieving. The truck moved in slow motion, wheels barely turning, light barely glinting off the wet black wheels. Yachi didn’t breathe, couldn’t breathe. 

The world turned but she couldn’t feel it, her breath and feeling stolen by shock. 

She didn’t feel getting thrown in the air. She didn’t feel weightless. 

Her eyes were wide, but she couldn’t see, being spun like a ragdoll through the air. 

Yachi pitched to the ground, stomach lurching, and sucked in another breath. 

 

*

 

Yachi’s eyes flew open and she shot upwards, heart pounding. 

She stared, blind, at the darkness, eyes widening as far as she could. Her breath came fast and stuttering, and her heart hammered so loud in her ears she couldn’t hear anything. She sat up, staring wildly in fear for a few moments before she managed to calm herself down. 

Where was she? Was she dead? In heaven? 

Her eyes adjusted to the light as her breathing and heart-rate slowed. She was in a room, probably a girl’s room, although there as not much around apart from girl’s clothes, and, actually, now she thought about it, it looked freakily similar to her own room, expect their were obvious differences. For one, they hadn’t repainted the insides of her window-shelves with a sticky pink paint that had never really dried properly like she had; and there wasn’t half as many posters and pictures with her and her friends stuck up in random places on her old corkboard. She squinted up and realised there wasn’t a massive picture of Kyuki, her favourite male tennis star on the ceiling either. In fact, it was a complete replica of her room three years earlier. 

Creepy. 

She sat, staring around her. It was pretty creepy, but a weird kind of heaven, and an even weirder sort of hell. Purgatory maybe? A bit weird kind of purgatory, but who was she to judge? At least there weren’t, like, massive demons or whatever there was supposed to be in purgatory. 

Yachi was kind of reluctant to get out of bed, in case she turned a corner and the world went all trippy like it was supposed to when the main character was having a weird dream. She’d never really thought of herself as a main character, but maybe this was where she became one, this was where a huge black magic cat came and told her she had died and had been reborn as a magic—

“Yachi! Are you up yet, dear?” Her mother knocked on the door of her bedroom. 

Yachi froze up. Her first instinct was to open the door—but no!! That was where the main characters made their mistakes!! She’d open up the door and BOOM! A giant cockroach would be there and ready to devour her soul for their own, huge pincers shaking while her mother’s voice floated from between the dark black mandibles... 

The door opened a crack and Yachi squeaked in fright. 

Her mother peered in, and Yachi didn’t know why she was so surprised. “Yachi, darling, you don’t want to be late for school on your first day. Come on, get ready before your toast gets cold.” 

“Ah—yeah.” Yachi nodded, and her mother moved out of the square of hallway light. 

Yachi stared after her. 

So, that truck had just been a dream. 

Or! Yachi thought, heart shuddering, A vision! 

There was no way she was taking the bike today, she thought, as she rushed through showering, getting dressed and saying goodbye to her mother, and it was only when she tumbled out of the door did she realise—wait, her first day? 

She shook her head, trying to clear it; it was probably just her mother getting confused. 

Anyway, it was bright today, the sun shining brilliantly down on a soft early autumn day. Lovely! Nothing quite like this! She set off down the dry road at a slow pace, keeping an eagle eye out for trucks, ready to leap catlike into the steep slope of trees should one appear, bushes be damned. 

Yachi frowned. It was very different to her vision, that’s for sure. Any sign of yesterday’s rain was completely gone, like it never happened, even though Yachi remembered watching it go down in her last ever full day of free periods, chatting with one of the people she’d be leaving behind soon. She couldn’t even remember who it was. 

Ah! That reminded her! She needed sweets for Kiyoko!! She turned back homeward when she noticed a familiar figure sprinting down the road after her. 

“YACHIIIIIIII!!” Hinata shouted, skidding to a halt. His shoulders looked very stiff; and drawn close together, and his face was pinched in confusion and worry. 

“What’s wrong, Hinata-san? Are you worried about graduation?” Yachi frowned. It wasn’t like Hinata to worry—no, it was very like Hinata to worry, but graduation was nothing to worry about. In fact, they’d been looking forward to it for weeks and weeks now, tired of the dog-days of the school year. 

“You remember me!!” Hinata said, tension easing from his body. He was grinning now. “And you remember graduation!! Do you remember the truck?!” 

“The... Did you have that dream too!” Yachi asked, eyes widening. 

“It wasn’t a dream! It was real!! Yachi-san we’ve been sent back in time!!” Hinata said, looking fit to burst. 

The wind rolled through the trees, catching leaves and turning them over, scattering them across the road. It caught a sound, low and whispery, through the tree’s boughs, almost like a white noise. 

“...what?” Yachi asked, finally, after staring at Hinata for what felt like a good few minutes. 

“We’ve been sent back in time three years, Yachi-san!! The truck must have sent us back, because we died!” Hinata said, loudly. 

Yachi reached up and massaged her forehead. “I... don’t...?” 

“We’ve started high-school again.” Hinata said, seriously.

Yachi stared at him. “So, we’re younger now. Like; first-years again. But we know all of the stuff already.” 

“This is such a cool thing, Yachi!! I can finally ace all my classes!” 

Yachi grinned. “Yeah, but how much of first-year do you remember?” 

Hinata wavered, and a look of hopelessness came over him. “Not a thing.” 

Yachi shrugged. “I don’t know if I believe it. It sounds crazy. Like something out of a Manga. How do you know we’re not just graduating again?” 

“I’m shorter than I was, and my gran-gran’s alive. Oh, and the date on my mum’s calendar fits,” Hinata said, “That’s all the proof I need.” 

Yachi looked at him, really looked at him; from the top of his fuzzy orange head to his probably not-regulation trainers. And in all honesty, he looked as short as ever, but she didn’t want to burst his bubble. 

They walked on; identical trees passing slowly, much, much slower than if they’d taken their bikes. But there was no way she was going back for it. 

“It doesn’t matter if we’re late. If its graduation day, the ceremony doesn’t start for another... two hours, and if it’s the first day, I remember being super early and having to wait around for ages and ages on my own...” Yachi shook her head. Why was she even thinking about it seriously? Sure, Hinata had had some weird ideas in his past, but this one topped the list. It was crazy, completely delusional. She was really gullible for even considering it. 

When they reached the school at least an hour later, Yachi couldn’t help but notice things creeping up on her about the building. 

The east wing of the building hadn’t had that fire and was as old as ever; there was no ivy growing on the wall of the volleyball courts’ gym, and the hospital opposite hadn’t redesigned their logo yet. 

Yachi shivered. 

“Are you guys first years? You ought to get to your home rooms really quickly, else you’ll miss them. I was just about the close the gates.” A stocky teacher with a rough face says, holding the gate open for them. 

“Oh—eh, thank-you!” Yachi said, hopping through, closely followed by Hinata. 

“Do you need directions? Which class are—” 

But the newly-young pair was already through the door, sprinting to their class with a route long drilled into their head by three years’ practice. They scooted down familiar corridors in a whirl, shoes squeaking on sticky floors, until they parted wordless on the stairs and Yachi tumbled through the door of class CA3, red in the face and puffing. 

“Ah, please, come in. You’re late, did you get lost?” Hijime-sensei asks, smiling kindly. Yachi shivers when she remembers one time in second year when she’d accidentally broken one of Hijime-sensei’s decorative glasses and the kind smile had turned very sour very quickly. 

“Y-ye-yeah, miss.” Yachi ducked her head in apology, darting towards a seat by the window before Mrs. could even place her. 

 

*

 

“Huh.” Hinata stared up at the old gym. 

He hadn’t gotten that close when he’d been a first-year, nothing more than a few longing glances whenever he walked somewhere close. There wasn’t many classes on this part of the campus—it was the edges where the school faded half into the surrounding farms and small houses. 

On the outside at least, it didn’t look that deserted. Sure, there was no shoes or things and there weren’t as many posters, but none of it was falling down and the peek through the window had proved that there was nothing too nasty inside it either. 

Hinata had already decided pretty much instantly he should change something large about this groundhog-day-like repeat. Something really important to him. 

It was obvious what his first choice was. 

Well, first thing he needed was like... a teacher person to head the club. The track club he’d joined halfway through second year had Taa... Tatsuki-sensei? Some maths teacher as their club head, although Hinata rarely saw him, and he always looked too grumpy to approach. 

Or maybe he should look for club members first? He’d need at least six to play one side... and that wouldn’t even leave him any substitutes, so he was looking at nine-ish people. Hinata’s brow furrowed. He didn’t know hardly enough people! Back in, in the future he’d had mainly Yachi’s friends and the people from track, all of which didn’t count because they were either girls or dedicated to track so much that he’d have no chance of convincing them to join. Anyway, he didn’t know them yet, and he couldn’t just ask anyone to join, or they’d have a ragtag group of people who didn’t even like volleyball. 

Hinata fretted himself into a rut, so worried he didn’t notice someone come and stand next to him, gazing up into the empty windows of the gym. 

“It’s so sad.” The someone said, making Hinata jump. 

Hinata straightened up, brushing down his trousers. “Y-yeah. Did you want to join?” 

The stranger had dark hair that caught the sun in such a way it glinting from the soft curve of his hair like crow’s feathers, catching the light in blues and greens. It looked very cool. The stranger turned his face and—well, if freckles were sun-kisses the skinny teen had been practically smothered. He grinned toothily. “Yeah, me and my friend Tsukishima.” 

Hinata straightened up even more as recognition hit him like a bolt of lightning. “Yamaguchi Tadashi!” He said to himself triumphantly. 

He remembered! He hadn’t know Yamaguchi ’til half-way through first year, when there had been this scandal with some posh other school’s kids over something and Yamaguchi had broken an arm in the fight. It had been the talk of the class for ages! 

“Uh,” The boy took a step back, startled. He blinking down at him. “How do you know my name?” 

Hinata dialled it down a little, grinning what he hoped was a reassuring grin. “Oh, I heard some... guy call to you earlier.”

“Ah,” The boy relaxed, and looked a little... proud? “That’d be Tsukki. He used to play volleyball.” 

Hinata blew a silent breath of relief. “Oh, you know what’d be cool! C’mon let’s re-form the volleyball team!” 

Yamaguchi frowned at him, nervous. “Reform...?”

“Yeah!” Hinata beamed, “It can’t be too difficult. I mean, we only need, what, nine people? Me, you, and your friend Tsukki, he’ll join, right?” 

“Uh-uh,” Yamaguchi stuttered. “Y-yeah, I think we might be able to.” 

“Cool, I’ll go ask some teachers and stuff about it, see you around,” Hinata beamed, and waved frantically while walking backwards. “See you around! Don’t forget, okay!” 

“Yea—hey wait, what’s your name?” Yamaguchi called after him. 

“Oh yeah, it’s Hinata!” Hinata grinned, and sped off. 

Yamaguchi watched him go, perplexed, but definitely not as lost as before... because, even though the dark circles under his eyes might not go away, Tsukishima would be happier, and that was all the mattered. 

He sighed through his nose, gathered himself up and started walking. 

 

*

 

“The Volleyball club?” 

The bright carrot-top first year nodded his head enthusiastically, floppy mop shaking too. 

“But that was disbanded, oh, must’ve been a year ago now. Why don’t you join the track or the hurdles clubs; I hear they’re looking for members.” The teacher pushed back her softly curled hair and peered down at him. She really ought to be getting back to her class; she had a few papers to mark. 

There it was, Hinata remembered clearly. The lines that had discouraged him all those years ago; he could remember them rolling through his head every time he saw volleyball on the television or saw the gym in the corner of his eye. It doesn’t matter ... it would just be like in junior ... I should just join track. 

“Sorry Sensei, but I have a passion for volleyball!” Hinata announced. 

“Oh, um,” The teacher blinked at him, surprised. “Well you should ask Takeda-sensei, I hear he’s in the position that used to belong to the, the last teacher who...” She trailed off, because the skinny lad had already vanished from her office. 

She pushed the glasses up her nose. How rude kids these days were. 

 

*

 

“Takeda-sensei!!” Hinata bellowed. 

Takeda jumped, spilling some coffee over the edge of his desk. He blinked through his thick glasses, turning to see a fresh-faced first-year with bright, brilliant eyes. He was grinning like a fox, all teeth and excited pent-up energy. He was practically bouncing on his heels, waiting for Takeda to say something. 

“Y-yes?” Takeda stumbled over his words. 

“Takeda-sensei please be the advisor for the new volleyball club!!” The boy asked, beaming at him. 

Takeda took a step back, still frazzled with surprise. “B-but I teach—”

There was a thump as the boy’s knees hit the floor and he bowed a Dogeza, head pressed on his hands. “Please!!” 

“Ah-ah-ah,” Takeda took another step back, blushing “Ok, ok, I’ll try my best, please, get up!” 

The boy leapt up with surprising speed and agility. “Thank-you sensei!! You won’t regret it! ’bye!” 

“Ah, bye,” Takeda said, smiling faintly. 

The boy disappeared around the corner in an almighty hurry. He was gone before Takeda’s breath caught up with itself, and he’d settled down into the vague calmness of marking, before it occurred to him to wonder why the boy thought he might regret it. 

 

*

 

“Yachii!!” 

Yachi jumped, almost dropping her bento. She spun around, brushing the hair out of her eyes. “Hinata? Why are you so, er, flustered?” 

‘Flustered’ was definitely a good word for it. Hinata looked, well, scruffy, with hair shooting out in even more directions than usual, shirt rumpled and he was panting like a dog; but his eyes looked even bright than usual. “C’mon, Yachi, let’s go to the roof!” 

“Eh,” Yachi frowned, glancing nervously at the ragtag bunch of first-years she’d gathered; she’d decided not to go with her usual friends in case she made enemies of them, and anyway, she didn’t want to change much. “Isn’t the roof usually... were the third-years sit? I mean, won’t it be crowded?” 

“C’mon!” Hinata tugged at her sleeve. 

“Um—ok.” Yachi let herself be dragged into the corridor again, following Hinata’s frantic pace as best she could. Something had really gotten him fired up, she could tell, and despite herself she was really curious what it was. 

“So y’know I always wanted to play volleyball, right? It was—it is!—my dream, but I couldn’t ’cuz they shut down the club ages ago, but I thought, now we’re back here I should reform it! It might take a while but—”

“Ah, Hinata-san?” Yachi pulled away from him nervously, trying to slow down. 

“—I think I could do it! I mean, all we’ve gotta do is convince, like, nine people and there was already some first-years who I saw earlier, yeah? He seemed pretty dedicated so—” 

“Hinata!” Yachi cried, catching his shoulder. 

“...it should be...” Hinata trailed off, watching her expectantly. In the half-light his eyes seemed brilliant brown, shinning rich gold in the corners like flaking copper. He seemed so intense, so vibrant and driven, like he was born solely to play volleyball, born solely to live these years. It was almost like everything was geared for it, like the world and fate and chance had come together from the stardust of the universe in just the right way, just the right angle and circumstance to let Hinata be a spiker; for him to live his dream. Yachi’s face softened. 

“Aren’t you... going to try to get back?” Yachi asked very quietly, almost inaudibly. 

“Back?” Hinata echoed uncertainly. 

“I’m sorry, it’s just...” Yachi’s hand slipped from Hinata’s shoulder and she held it close. “All those years do they mean... No, it’s, yeah, whatever.” 

Hinata stared at her. 

Yachi shook her head, blinked at him, and shook it again, harder. “No, never mind.” 

Hinata stared at her. 

“Anyway,” Yachi’s lips twitched into a smile. “Aren’t you going a little too fast? I mean, it’s only the first day, we have loads of time to decide what we want to do.” 

Hinata grinned. “Yeah, but why wait? If we do it quickly, we might be able to get there in time for the Interhigh-Preliminaries!” 

Yachi half-grinned, recalling when she watched them on TV once. “That’s not very far away, is it?” 

“Yeah, so that’s why we’ve got to hurry,” Hinata sighed and stared walking again, “But don’t worry, with me as the Ace spiker and you as the manager we’ll do fine!” 

It was Yachi’s turn to stare. “Me as your manager?” 

“Yeah, we need a pupil one and you’re really good at this kind of thing,” Hinata grinned brilliantly. 

Yachi felt her face heat. “B-but, no I’m not! Sometimes I get so nervous I think I’m going to die!” 

“C’mon,” Hinata grinned, sprinting up what must have been the millionth staircase. “We’re almost there!” 

“Y-yeah,” Yachi nodded, hugging her bento tight and dashing after him. 

He crashed through the door to the roof, and it was beautiful. 

The sky was almost a luminous blue, glowing through the crosshatch of the wire, white clouds whisking like froth on a coffee above the treetops and buildings. The school campus still looked large from up there, even though the people were small the buildings stretched downwards like chunks of skyscrapers. The earth was beaten dusty below them, grass few and far between. 

And what was better, was that it was almost completely empty, except for another lanky first year on the other side of the roof. 

“Great!” Hinata said, plopping down a little way from the door. “Hey Yachi can I have a bit of your bento.” 

“Oh, y-yeah,” Yachi said, still flustered, “Didn’t you bring your own?” Opening it up and passing him a few chunks of rice that he gobbled down. 

“Yeah,” He pulled it out, waving it at her. 

Yachi huffed, scooting closer to the wiring. She stared down at the people wondering about the campus, chatting and milling about. She thought about her own friends, the first time around. She’d met most of them in what would now be a few months’ time. They didn’t know her yet, but she knew them. It was strange to think about, and sad. 

“Hey, Yachi,” Hinata said, around a mouthful of rice, “Do you know anybody who’d like to play volleyball?” 

Yachi thought about it. “Um, I don’t know anybody yet. I didn’t really know that many boys, lest of all who were club-less but still enjoyed athletics.” 

“Yeah,” Hinata sighed. “Same.” 

“I suppose we could recruit someone who was going to join track or something, but it seems mean,” Yachi shrugged, “I mean, it’s like, interfering with their destinies or something.” 

“We’re doing that anyway,” Hinata pointed out. 

“Ah, yeah, I just... Maybe we should get an older manager?” Yachi straightened her skirt so the pleats matched up perfectly with her thighs. “I don’t know anything about managing a club—or volleyball.” 

“Don’t give up before you’ve even started!” Hinata grinned. 

Yachi nodded glumly. 

The clouds moved across the sky, tiny wispy fingers spreading out across the blue. 

“Maybe we should just ask around.” Yachi said, slyly. 

“Hmm?” Hinata asked. 

“Like, start with that first-year who’s been listening to our conversation.” 

The lanky boy jumped, whipping his head towards them. He glanced at Yachi and then fixed his gaze completely on Hinata, eyes wide. 

“You--!!” The boy said, stopping short. 

Hinata squinted. Something about that boy was incredibly familiar. The way his hair scattered a dark shadow across his eyes and the way his arms bent slightly at the elbow. “Ah!” Hinata said suddenly, realisation spreading bright across his face, “You—you’re from that tournament!! Kita-Kitagawa Daiichi Junior High, right?! Ah, that means you’ll want to play!!” 

The boy frowned, mouth slightly open. He seemed stumped. “You’re not... mad at me?” 

“Mad?” Hinata cupped his chin. He remembered now, the match he’d played against them in Junior High. He remembered being so excited and so sure he would win... He remembered losing like a punch to the gut, sending him reeling... It all seemed ages away now, a faded memory. He couldn’t even remember the names of the people he played with. “Yeah, I was... pretty mad.”

The boy shook his head. “You wouldn’t want to play with me anyway.” 

“Eh? Why not?” Hinata frowned. “Aren’t you any good? You could always get better.” 

“No!” The boy said, surprised, “I mean, yes! I’m good!” 

Hinata grinned. “Don’t you like playing volleyball?” 

“I do!” 

“Then there’s no problem.” Hinata said, matter-of-factly. He folded his arms. 

The boy’s face twitched. And he sighed. “I—”

The bell rang, sharp and clear swallowing his words. 

“Ahhh, I didn’t even get to eat all of my bento,” Yachi sighed, putting it all away hastily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uwu  
> Based off of KUBO Mitsurou's great manga "Again!!".  
> Although I keep up with the manga, I'm probably only borrowing plots from the first chapter or so because I plan to write a very different kind of story. Oendans are very different from Volleyball Clubs. Plus, I am determined to keep this gen, as there are far too much of this lovey lovey stuff in this fandom (I kid, y'know ily)


	2. Chapter 2

Yachi was surprised, although not as much as yesterday, when she didn’t wake up in her own time. Except this time, she was also delighted.

She patted her chest happily as she was glad that, even though it was only Day 2, everything was reaching a kind-of normality. Hinata had a pretty clear goal, and she was happy to help as always.

She padded downstairs, bright and cheery. It had been a long time since she’d felt this... ready. For the longest time she’d worried about school, and as graduation crept closer, she worried about that too. She worried endlessly about everything, from small stuff like whether her friends thought she was nervous around them even when she wasn’t, to the big stuff like what career she was going to choose after school and if she was going to go to university or work up at her uncle’s further north. (She worried about the little parts of the big stuff like whether her uncle’s dogs liked her or whether her cousins would mind how many coats she wore all the time.)

Yachi turned worrying into a national event. People could come to wave flags at how fast she could turn someone’s normal statement into something that made her painstakingly anxious.

But now? She felt safe. She was still a little unnerved at their sudden appearance in the past, worried slightly about Hinata not wanting to reform old friendships; but in all honesty she felt refreshed. She knew where she stood with school. She had already done all the work, she was well prepared for any test the teacher gave her—even the surprise tests!

She waved to her mother as she left, early, for school.

Yachi watched the clouds spread gently across the bluest of skies and grinned at them.

When Hinata caught up with her, she was still grinning.

 

 

*

 

 

“Okay!” Hinata spread out a piece of paper like a map across the roof. Yachi and the other first year carefully picked a spot to sit around its edges, peering at it with different levels of confusion.

“So, we need more people. I was thinking of the people who were disbanded because they didn’t have enough members—”

“Hey, will they have enough members now, though? You can’t reform it without at least nine.” The first year craned his neck over the scrawling mass of writing.

“Yeah, I mean, you and me and Yamaguchi and Yamaguchi’s friend that’s four, and if we convince the five people who’re still in the school, that’ll be enough right?”

The first year nods eagerly.

Hinata grins at him. “So we should just pick a manager and we’ll be set to start! Do you know anyone?”

He looks expectantly at Yachi.

She blinks, frowning slightly. Kiyoko sprung to mind, but she’d only be able to manage for around half a year—and anyway it’d be few years until she moved near the shop Yachi worked at part-time, and they wouldn’t know each other. Yachi huffed, drawing breath into her chest until she could hold no more.

“I’ll do it.” She said, quickly.

Hinata blinked. “Really?”

“Really.” She nodded, firmly, and shot to her feet. “Come on, let’s get going. Who’s first?”

“Daichi Sawamura. He was the captain.” Hinata read, “Class 4. Let’s go.”

 

 

*

 

 

Daichi’s day had not being especially boring, even though it was pretty bland. He was vaguely glad he’d studied; the test in the last period had been refreshingly easy. In the back of his mind, he was bored, but on the whole he wasn’t especially _anything_.

The clouds moved across the sky. He attended school. The clock ticked. He studied. The tides moved in and out. Everything went through its motions. Order as usual.

“Hey—hey!” Nishinoya kicked the back of his chair. “Did you watch the game last night? It was incredible! Even for Kanagawa—Especially since they lost their third-years, the first years were so well trained!! They moved together so well, even though they lost they fought so well. Man, I think...”

Daichi’s eyes roll towards him slowly. Not lazily. Languidly.

“Do you think...” The look on Nishinoya’s face doesn’t suit him. It sits awkwardly, until he cracks another small grin by force of will. “It doesn’t matter. Did you take any notes for Maths?”

Daichi goes to dig them out.

“Daichi?” A girl asks, looking expectantly down at him. “There’s some first years at the door.”

“Thanks Yukino,” Daichi tossed his notes at Nishinoya, who snatched them up expertly. “I wonder what they want.”

The girl shrugged. “They said something about reforming a volleyball club?”

Both Daichi and Nishinoya’s heads snap up.

 

 

*

 

Their first practise was disjointed, they were all rusty and moved so out of sync it was almost painful to watch.

But Hinata never seemed to notice, laughing and grinning like a mad thing, life buzzing through his triumphant shouts. It was joy enough for everyone to borrow.

Everyone was sure that, whatever happened, they would be incredible.

And they were.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...and they all lived happily ever after!


End file.
